Do bottle and sippy cups ruin teeth? What causes baby bottle tooth decay? How do you prevent baby bottle tooth decay? New moms ask these questions quite often! Let us answer some of your questions to help care for your baby better.

We want to ensure we are all doing our part to make sure your baby has the foundation for building healthy and strong teeth for the rest of his/her life. This begins when babies get their first teeth. Something we see every so often at Sioux Center Dental is what we call “baby bottle tooth decay”. This happens when people put their baby to bed with a bottle of pop, juice, milk, etc. or don’t brush the baby’s teeth before bed. The baby’s teeth then start to form decay. At a young age, this starts the child on a path to a lifetime of tooth decay and dental pain that we all want to avoid! We recommend not sending them to bed with a bottle of milk or juice. Most of us know that we should avoid sugary drinks during the day but that also goes for the night! As parents, we should be doing a good job of brushing our child’s teeth twice a day. A good rule of thumb is that if they are unable to tie their own shoes, then they should not be brushing their teeth alone, without supervision. Dr. Kuiper’s son is very independent and likes to brush his teeth on his own. Afterwards, Dr. Kuiper tells his son, Asher, that he his going to get any spots he may have missed and Asher is usually pretty good about allowing Dr. Kuiper to finish the job!

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, click here to visit our Pediatric Dentistry page! If you have any questions about any of today’s content, please contact us and we would be happy to give you some helpful tips!

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